Pride’s Keisha-Monique Joseph recently caught up with comedian Charlie Murphy, the brother of a certain Beverley Hills Cop. Still need further clues? Take a good look at his picture…
What do you think makes a great comedian?
Well I’m blessed by God, that’s the only thing I can think of. I’m serious about it and I spend a lot of my energy perfecting it. I work hard.
OK, so make me laugh…
Make you laugh now?
Yes please…
It doesn’t work like that; that’s how machines work. You know, you put a coin in and a piece of bubblegum falls out, but that’s not how human beings work.
On Dave Chapelle’s show you do skits that pertain to you being in Eddie’s entourage… Were you?
No I certainly wasn’t in his entourage. He’s my brother. I was working with him. An entourage, in my opinion, is a group of people that are paid to be around someone. That was never the situation. We put together The PJs, I’m sure you’re familiar with that, I wrote Vampire in Brooklyn, and I wrote Norbit with Eddie as well. But entourage? You’ll have to talk to someone else.
Do you ever get mistaken for Eddie?
I don’t ever get mistaken for Eddie, what I get is, “That’s Eddie Murphy’s brother”.
You do look alike though…
On a certain level, it’s an insult when people tell me that I look like my little brother because me and my little brother look like my father, who died when I was ten. So when they say, “Oh you look like Eddie,” I say, “No, Eddie looks like me and we look like our father”.
Is it ever tough dealing with the fact that Eddie is so successful? Does he inspire you in any way?
I’m proud of him, but as far as inspiring me, it’s no more than anybody else who is successful. There’s a host of successful people in the world, my brother happens to be one of them. I’m proud of him for that, but I look up to all successful people, I don’t just look at my family. Steve Jobs was successful, I learned from him, Bill Gates is successful, Warren Buffet, Paul McCartney. There’s a whole host of successful people.
